Karen Ann Quinlan was not dead. She was severely brain damaged, much like Terry Schindler. Her brain was fully alive.

A brain dead person has *no* functional brain because the brain is actually dead—no oxygenation, no blood, no energy use, no metabolism of any kind. When removed from a respirator, a brain dead person does not breathe and the heart ceases to beat shortly thereafter.

This little girl, Jahi, has been examined and determined to be brain dead. Although some of the physiological functions of life have been artificially prolonged using the ventilator and many of the tissues remain alive, she is dead. Her soul is in Heaven.

44 posted on 01/03/2014 5:37:46 PM PST by exDemMom
(Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)

The difference in Quinlan's case was that she wasn't actually "dead" by any medical definition. Her case demonstrates a clear difference between "death" and a "coma." The fact that she survived after the respirator was removed was compelling evidence that she was still "alive" by any objective measure.

62 posted on 01/03/2014 6:37:27 PM PST by Alberta's Child
("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")

Interesting, don’t you think, since her body didn’t turn to mush or anything like it. This young girl is not dead, she is on a ventilator as was Christopher Reeve until he died and Karen Quinlan for 10 years after the ventilator was removed. The hospital is looking out for their financial interest, period, IMHO.

Young children who are gravely injured - for that matter, adults who are gravely injured - sometimes recover. My Mom, for example, was put on a respirator because she was dying of a massive cerebral hemmorhage (sp). 3 hours later she woke up, noticed my brother had changed his shirt, and was sent home 3 days later alert and oriented. She ended up with no physical and minimal mental affects. Both physicians and nurses said it was a miracle.

This girl may recover some or not at all, but the hospital and freepers aren’t helping the discussion by saying she is dead.